You consumers are so selfish! May 24, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in News.Tags: advertising, internet
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This story is in the BBC News today. The gist of the piece is that web users are getting more “ruthless and selfish.” Apparently the definition of “selfish” is, uh, this:
'Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave.'
I suppose this means that teenagers on MySpace are quite generous? This quote pretty much sums it up:
'Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention.'(Emphasis mine.)
So, basically, people are selfish because they aren't making it easy for advertising people to make money off of them? The sad thing is, I can actually imagine people thinking this. “Hey, they aren't giving us as much money as we want. So selfish!” And that's basically what it is. I mean, why else would someone be complaining about this? It's not like most people want people to stick around just to waste more of their bandwidth, so it must be the ad revenue they're thinking of.
I guess this strikes me as being similar to the Best Buy con. The reason they can sell that printer/camera/whatever so cheap during sales is because they know they can hook a lot of people into buying ridiculously overpriced cables or whatever (compare to, say, this). If the consumer just wants the cheap thing, they're clearly selfish for not allowing themselves to get ripped off on the cable. I guess that's true, but I'd rather be selfish than a sucker. The same thing applies here, I think. If I know what I want, why should I stick around longer just to let you selfishly and ruthlessly (did you all catch how I turned that around?) earn ad revenue on the way I waste my time online? If there's a site that I actually want to spend some time on, I will, but I don't think it would make me a better or more generous person if I stuck around for no reason.
I'll end on this note:
'Now, when people go online they know what they want and how to do it, he said.
This makes them very resistant to highlighted promotions or other editorial choices that try to distract them.'
The worst customer is a smart customer, right?
Anthropologists are basically awesome March 12, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Archaeology, TV/Movies.Tags: archaeoblog, awesome, blogs, Flores, internet, John Hawks, physical anthropology
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I'm ashamed to admit it, but I had actually never read, or heard of, John Hawks' very entertaining (and educational!) blog before today. I discovered it this afternoon (via) and spent most of my free time at work reading through it. If you're at all interested in biological anthropology or human evolution, it's a pretty good read. His latest post on LB 1, for example, is pretty cool if you've been following the Hobbit news lately (edit: I guess I should point out that he has written, uh, a bit more about the Hobbits, too).
I, of course, was mostly drawn to his TV reviews. Here are some highlights:
The post that drew me in was his review of 10,000 BC drawn from the IMDb message board (apparently IMDb is the new YouTube). The “hey guys, the correct term is BP” comment really made this one for me.
His comparison of Apocalypto and Collapse sums up much more elegantly than I've ever been able to my basic opinion of Jared Diamond's writings on anthropology (see also).
This older entry is pretty good.
I enjoyed this even older entry simply because the discussion about “race” reminded me of something my skeletal analysis professor said: “Remember, the police generally are not interested in lectures on the socially constructed nature of race. They really just want you to help them figure out who those bones belonged to.”
This entry is easily one of my favorites.
Also, it's not in the TV reviews section, but I always think it's cool when I see reviews of papers by people I used to say hello to in the hall, such as this one. Even if that paper was over 20 years old at the time.
Anyway, the point is, he has a pretty cool blog. Someday I hope to be at least that cool. Perhaps I'll send him an e-mail and let him know . . . probably not, but hey.
Surely this convenience entices you! February 16, 2008
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, Life.Tags: annoyances, internet, pop-ups
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The pop-up ad is one of the ancient institutions of the internet. Sure, everyone hates them, but they've been around for so long that they've just become a sort of fact of life. Firefox's generally adequate pop-up blocker takes care of most of them for me, but they do occasionally slip by, usually while I'm at my most productive.
But let's shift gears just for a second. People more technically minded than myself are probably already well-aware of the wonderful onbeforeunload event. For those who are not, what this does is, essentially, pop-up a message saying, “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?” whenever you try to, well, navigate away from or close the page. This type of behavior can be quite useful. If you are filling out some important/long form, and accidentally close the tab it's in, having it ask you if you're sure you want to close it is nice.
I think you can see where I'm going with this. Today I was treated to a pop-up ad offering both a free love tester service and, somewhat amusingly, the Yahoo! Toolbar, a product designed to block pop-up ads. I suppose advertising with pop-up ads does reach out to their target demographic. Anyway, as I attempted to close this window, I received a message saying, “Are you sure you want to navigate away from this page?” It just goes to show you, anything that can be used to annoy people on the internet, will be used to do so. I guess it's some sort of take on Murphy's law. I can't wait until they start putting custom messages in: “Are you sure you want to close that? Fine, but remember, you could have won a Porsche!“
I almost fell for it. . . January 14, 2007
Posted by argotnavis in Humor, Language, Life.Tags: annoyances, internet, spam
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You know, I'm not one to tell other people how to do their jobs, but I think some people could genuinely use some guidance. For example, I just got a spam e-mail from a person named “Pirate.” Seriously. Their display name was just “Pirate.” Now, as fitting a description as that might be, that's probably not the best way to get someone to open your spam message. Hell, I'm more likely to open those sixteen identical e-mails from “Sven O'Malley” and “Hurealite K. Cohobation” than one from a guy calling himself “Pirate.”
